COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Senate on Thursday unanimously approved a state budget bill, setting up a showdown with the House over taxes, education funding and more.
The Senate budget passed 33-0, with 9 Democrats joining the chamber’s 24 Republicans in voting yes.
The budget’s bipartisan support in itself is notable — Democrats for years have been irrelevant in Columbus, and partisan divides were steep under former Gov. John Kasich’s tenure. But both the House and the Senate with Democratic support passed budget bills built off the template set by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who took office in January.
Several state senators, Republican and Democrat, credited DeWine for designing a budget around education and children’s health programs, with another major spending provision going to water protection. Senate leaders also avoided pursuing Medicaid eligibility changes, which would have been likely been a poison pill for Democrats.
State lawmakers also had the benefit of better-than performing state revenues, which they decided to use in part to award across-the-board tax cuts.
“Thank you so much for giving me my first opportunity in nine years to vote in the affirmative for a budget,” said Lakewood Sen. Nickie Antonio, a Democrat.
“This is a substantial investment in education in the state of Ohio,” said Sen. Matt Dolan, a Chagrin Falls Republican who quarterbacked the budget-writing process. “So governor, we met you there, and we agree with you that children are an essential part of what we want to accomplish with this budget.”
The House cast a customary vote to reject the changes, which will lead to a conference committee next week through which the two chambers will work out their differences. The final version is supposed to head to DeWine’s desk before a June 30 legal deadline.
Senate President Larry Obhof, a Medina Republican, said he expects a smooth negotiating process (although whether that’s the case remains to be seen — negotiations over a state transportation bill in March dragged on three days past a legal deadline). He declined to identify specific areas as key sticking points.
“I think we’re going to work well together, and I fully expect a quality bill that is satisfying to both chambers by the end of next week,” Obhof said.
The competing budget plans largely agree around DeWine’s general framework, but differ on the particulars.
Here’s a breakdown:
“Wraparound” student services
DeWine proposed spending $550 million over two years on support services, like mental health and after school programs, for at-risk students.
The House version dedicated an extra $125 million for support services targeting students in rural areas.
The Senate undid that, but redirected some of the spending to other education-related issues. That includes $38.5 million to help fast-growing schools, largely in suburban areas, that have been capped for years under the state school-funding formula.
They also dedicated an extra $50 million for a private-school vouchers for students in underperforming public-school districts, expanding eligibility to the program from K-5 to all grade levels, beginning in the 2020-2021 school year.
There were other education changes in the Senate version, including revised high-school graduation standards starting for the class of 2023 that senators said will place a decreased focus on standardized tests and offer non-test alternatives.
The Senate also removed language that the House had inserted that undid the state’s process for taking over failing school districts. Obhof indicated the issue could still be revisited before the budget process ends.
Taxes
DeWine proposed no major tax changes, including leaving stand a tax deduction that makes a business’s first $250,000 in income tax-free.
But both legislative chambers approved broad tax cuts that include eliminating the bottom two income-tax brackets.
The House version scaled back the $250,000 deduction to apply only to the first $100,000 in income, but the Senate version largely undoes that.
The Senate also restored an $80 million motion-picture tax credit the House had eliminated to protests from the state film industry.
The House targeted a series of other small tax breaks, eliminating those that benefit investors in gold bullion, owners of fractional jet shares, owners of motor-racing teams, and buyers of aviation repairs and flight simulators.
The Senate agreed with the House on eliminating the motor-racing team tax exemption but restored the rest.
Water protection
DeWine requested $900 million for his “H2Ohio” fund dedicated toward protecting Lake Erie and other state waterways.
The House slashed it to $86 million and introduced legislation to borrow the rest. That bill passed the Ohio House on Thursday.
The Senate budget dedicates $172 million for water-quality programs, and begins spelling out how it might be spent. Dolan indicated on Thursday that while the short-term funding for H2Ohio will remain in the budget, it was unlikely the issue of whether the future money would be borrowed will be addressed in the budget process.
The Senate approved a number tweaks or additions. They include:
- $5 million for pregnancy-crisis centers, which provide pre-natal care and other services for pregnant women but also counsel them against seeking abortions. Democratic senators sought to remove the provisions from the budget unsuccessfully.
- $1 million for lead-paint removal in Cleveland, and another $300,000 doing the same in Toledo. The funding is in addition to a $5 million tax credit DeWine proposed to help property owners pay for lead-paint removal. The House doubled that number to $10 million, a change the Senate kept.
- A new tax on e-cigarettes and other vape products that tax them at 1 cent per milliliter of liquid
- A move of Ohio’s 2020 presidential primary to March 17. The tweak, requested by the state GOP, ensures that Ohio’s presidential primary will fall after March 15, the cutoff set by the Republican National Committee for when a state’s votes start being awarded in a winner-take all format, rather than proportionately.
- Language that allows private schools to deny admission to children whose parents or guardians refuse to vaccinate them.